Murder of April Jones 'proves porn link to sexual assaults'

Internet search companies such as Google came under pressure tonight to block
child pornography after a children’s charity said that the sites “fuel the
fantasies” of paedophiles who then sexually assault children.

Bridger’s laptop computer contained a cache of images of children being raped and abusedPhoto: PA

As Mark Bridger was jailed for life for the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones, the NSPCC said there was a “worrying link” between his looking at indecent images online and the crime he went on to commit.

It called for “effective measures” to curb the ease with which extreme pornography and indecent images of children can be accessed.

Bridger’s laptop computer contained a cache of images of children being raped and abused. Police found a horror film in his video recorder paused at a violent rape.

Earlier this month, Stuart Hazell was jailed for the murder of Tia Sharpe, his partner’s 12-year-old-granddaughter. During his trial the Old Bailey heard that he had used his computer to search for terms including “violent forced rape” and “incest”.

Bridger, like Hazell, had no previous convictions for sexual offences. Both went from viewing indecent images straight to the worst class of offending. With no gradual escalation in behaviour, there was nothing to suggested they were a threat to children and to alert police.

Tonight Phillip Noyes, the acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “It seems Bridger lived in a fantasy world which included looking at child abuse images online.

“For some time we have been concerned about the growing number of these obscene images which are becoming more easily available and can fuel the fantasies of offenders like Bridger.

“This case points to the ever-growing evidence that there is a worrying link between looking at this vile kind of material and committing other serious sexual assaults. April’s death will hopefully lead to effective measures to stamp out this vile trade.”

There have been calls for Google to introduce their “safe search” option as a default setting, which would automatically block hard-core pornography and make it far more difficult for children to access accidentally. The current default setting, “moderate”, does not.

John Carr, the government’s adviser on internet safety and secretary of a children’s charities coalition on the subject, has said: “Google can do more and should do more.”

Peter Davies, the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), also warned of a link between extreme pornography and those who went on to abuse children.

He said: “The viewing of indecent images of children can lead to an escalation in offending, resulting in the offender committing contact child sexual offences.

“In other cases, such images will be viewed once contact offending has begun or even used by offenders as part of the process of grooming a child for abuse.”

He added: “The ongoing impact on the victim within those pictures must not be overlooked. On the internet these images are a permanent and very public record of contact sexual abuse, with the child continuing to be victimised every time that image is accessed.”

Bridger, who received a whole life tariff for April’s murder, had used his laptop to search for terms including “naked young five-year-old girls” and “pictures of naked virgin teens”.

He claimed in court that he had stored images because he intended to complain to the internet companies about the ease with which they could be accessed.

But the jury rejected his explanation and the judge, Mr Justice Griffith-Williams, said he was in no doubt that Bridger was a paedophile who harboured morbid fantasies about young girls.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Bridger in relation to indecent images, claiming it would not have been in the public interest.

It also emerged during the trial that he had twice recorded a rape scene from The Last House on the Left, a horror film which police believe he watched just before abducting and killing the schoolgirl.

Last week, the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition wrote to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, calling for a change in the law to close a loophole that allows some simulated images of rape.

A spokesman for Rape Crisis, a charity, said: “Our concern is that given current legal loopholes, similar men using pornography simulating acts of sexual violence including rape, child sexual abuse and incest, would not be committing an offence under existing extreme pornography legislation.”

April’s case comes after a confidential hotline used to flag criminal content online revealed that it had seen a 32 per cent increase in reports of images showing the rape and sexual torture of children.

Scott Rubin, the director of communications and public affairs at Google, said: “Google has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content. We are members and joint funders of the Internet Watch Foundation, an independent body that searches the web for child abuse imagery and then sends us links, which we remove from our search index. When we discover child abuse imagery or are made aware of it, we respond quickly to remove and report it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”